This is a competing renewal application to continue training postdoctoral fellows in nephrology research. Our goal is to prepare fellows for a career in Academic Nephrology by training them to use modern techniques of cellular and molecular biology or epidemiology and clinical investigation while investigating a specific project. We will continue to rely on an interdisciplinary approach that involves preceptors from the Renal Division and from the Departments of Physiology and Surgery, and from Cardiology and Gastroenterology. Our proposed program is based on ongoing scientific interactions between faculty of the Renal Division and the Basic Sciences. The Director of the Training Grant will be Dr. Jeff M. Sands and the Co-Directors will be Dr. Douglas C. Eaton and Dr. S. Russ Price. Each of the 15 preceptors has an outstanding training record and research funding from the NIH and/or VA. Proposed research projects can be grouped into four major areas based on the questions being addressed: physiology;cellular and molecular biology;transplant immunology;and epidemiology/clinical investigation. We believe involving trainees directly in a specific project plus formal and informal courses in statistics and in cellular and molecular biology, and interaction with clinical investigators will provide them with a first-rate opportunity to develop a career in Academic Medicine. Two categories of trainees will be chosen: 1) M.D.s or M.D./Ph.D.s from the Adult and Pediatric Nephrology Fellowship programs;and 2) Ph.D. candidates. Over the past 10 years, there have been 16 trainees supported by this grant: 8 continue to pursue academic careers in basic or clinical research with full-time medical school faculty positions, 1 is in Internal Medicine residency training, 5 are in nephrology practice, and 2 will be entering their second year of research training during the last year of the current funding period. Thus, 8 of the 13 trainees (62%) who completed all of their training during 2000-2010 entered academic medicine and are currently full-time faculty members at a medical school. The 16 trainees included 7 women and 4 members of an under-represented minority group. Ten of the 14 trainees who have completed training have published peer-reviewed papers;the other 4 trainees have published abstracts and presented their data at National scientific meetings. We have filled every available position every year since the start of this program in 1990. We seek funding to continue this successful training program. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Our goal is to train the next generation of renal investigators in order to improve our understanding of renal disease in patients. Our research program will teach young investigators to apply modern techniques to answer questions related to the consequences of kidney disease. This offers an excellent opportunity to identify and treat these conditions. We have designed a Training Program that emphasizes existing interactions between Renal Division faculty and investigators in other Divisions and Departments at Emory.